Alqosh

Town 40 km. north of Mosul in Iraq. Seat
of a Chald. bishopric. It now numbers around 5,000 inhabitants. Many
families and individuals migrated from Alqosh to larger Iraqi cities (Mosul,
Baghdad, etc.) or abroad, especially to the USA and UK. The
town’s economy is based on agriculture (wheat, barley, chickpeas, lentils,
beans, cucumbers, gourds, melons, grapes, and figs) and animal husbandry
(sheep and goats). Traditional trades included weaving and dying cloth.
Alqosh is a major spiritual center. Jews used to go on pilgrimage to the
tomb believed to be that of the prophet Nahum, who, according to an
interpretation of Nah 1.1, may have come from Alqosh. Two important E.-Syr.
monasteries lie close to Alqosh: the Monastery of Rabban Hormizd, founded in the 7th cent., used to
be one of the patriarchal residences of the Ch. of E., later moved to Mosul,
then Baghdad, and the more recent Monastery of the Virgin, also known as
‘the Lower Monastery’ or ‘of Our Lady of the Seeds’. From the 16th cent. the
cultural life of the village flourished thanks to the so-called School of Alqosh. Alqosh was pillaged several times, by Murād Bey
(Bar Yak) in 1508, the Pasha of ʿAmadiyya in 1740, the Persians in 1743.
People sought refuge on the mountain, in the Monastery of Rabban Hormizd,
but there were rapes and casualties. Around the mid-16th cent. some of the
population supported Yoḥannan Sullaqa, the first Chald.
patr.
elected with official approval of
Rome. In 1767, around 100 of the 500 families were Catholic. Literary
sources and annotations made by European travelers record recurrent cases of
pestilence and famine, caused by draught or locusts, which devastated the
region during the 19th cent. In 1832 and 1842 the village was attacked and
pillaged by Kurds.